Becoming A Writer Is Great Because Now You Have A Hobby That Haunts You Whenever You Don’t Have Time

THURSDAY THE 20TH!!

happy Thursday the 20th

I'd love more exploration of Rex perhaps feeling like he got kind-of the short end of the stick in terms of Jedi. He LIKES Ahsoka, for sure, she's got a spirit he admires and she's tenacious and it's hard not to care for her. And Anakin is, well, powerful for sure and friendly enough, so for a while Rex thinks he came out pretty well with his Jedi.

But then he starts meeting other Jedi or working alongside other Jedi and he realizes how much more competent other Jedi often are, especially the more experienced ones. And while Anakin is friendly enough, he's seen a lot of the other clones have MUCH closer relationships to their Jedi and certainly none of THEM ask their captains or commanders to lie to superior officers about secret relationships or unsanctioned missions. He's a little surprised once when he notices pretty much every other Jedi remembers that the clones can't always keep up with the Jedi and will unhesitatingly adjust their battle strategy to accommodate it. He sees the way other young Padawans are being taught to do something similar, to really consider the lives of the clones when they're in battle as the higher priority rather than the success of the mission.

And Rex starts wondering what his life might be like if he had ended up with a different Jedi. He loves his men, he's proud of the work they do most of the time, and he doesn't DISLIKE the Jedi he ended up with, but sometimes he's kind-of jealous of some of his brothers and wishes he'd gotten their Jedi instead.

These are the only three flaws I will concede, when it comes to the Jedi during the Prequels.

“They got lax/complacent.”

Yeah*. If you listen to the director’s commentary, George Lucas states the scene in AOTC with Jocasta Nu is there to indicate how unprepared the Jedi were before the Sith’s plan. They thought they were secure and ready but they were not and it turns out humble restaurant owners like Dex know things they don't.

*HOWEVER: Who wouldn’t be complacent, in times of peace?

The Sith were thought to be extinct and Dooku was once a Jedi, a revered one at that. Nobody could have suspected he’d betray the Order that raised him and loved him.

Nobody could've suspected that he'd abuse of their trust and delete a system from the Archives using the credentials of his best friend who he'd had assassinated. That's a verrrry specific scenario, and expecting them to be prepared for that is unreasonable.

"They should've sensed something!" Well, by this point in time, everything surrounding the Jedi was tainted by the Dark Side, which clouded everything. So on the one hand, this situation granted Sidious the gift of foresight and allowed them to always be one step ahead, and on the other, it caused the Jedi to be stuck trekking ahead in a fog, unsure of what the next move would be.

“They were politically-inept.”

Yes**. That’s how the Sith ran circles around the Jedi. They figured “there’s only two of us, if we march into the Temple we’ll get slaughtered, but wait, the Jedi serve the Senate and the Senate is run by politicians… what if we become the politicians? Then we can destroy the Jedi and the principles from the inside!”

**HOWEVER: The Jedi were politically-inept by choice.

After all, their function isn’t setting policy but carrying it out. They’re not politicians, they’re diplomats and as such they're not allowed to get involved in the political process.

But if they were... they still wouldn't. Because power corrupts, and if you let the space monks (who already have magical powers) have political power too, then that will lead to a very dark place.

The Jedi knew that if they tried to play politics, they’ll lose because they have neither the ruthlessness nor the status to do it well, so they make it a point of never going anywhere near it.

Unfortunately, that leaves them open to situations where the Senate or Palpatine corner them into doing something they really don’t wanna do.

It's how they were forced to expel Ahsoka, how they lost the favor of the citizens and it's how Dooku, then the Emperor, framed them as power-hungry sorcerers with his propaganda.

“The war made them hypocrites.”

Sure***. The Jedi were meant to be diplomats, not soldiers. By waging war instead of keeping the peace, they’ve compromised on their values.

***HOWEVER: The Jedi know this and they’re not happy about it at all.

Firstly, because they were forced into this situation by the Senate and Palpatine, who drafted them into service.

Secondly, because they know they’re essentially moving ahead blindly and playing right into the Sith Lord’s hand by fighting this war he orchestrated.

But finally, it’s that they know that not joining would’ve been worse. Sticking by their principles would’ve resulted in the enslavement and genocide of many populations. Sometimes, the spirit of the rules must be prioritized over the letter. Either do nothing and be true to your principles, or go against them but save lives.

It’s a bad choice to make, but not as bad as not making one.

It's a bad choice, but it's motivated by a desire to do some good and it did. They saved countless lives (sometimes at the cost of their own) and inspired countless more to form the Rebellion, later on.

So... three flaws.

But they all come with asterisks. There’s a reasonable (sometimes, even admirable) justification for each of them.

I’m pointing these out because a lot of people seem to conflate “the Jedi were flawed” with “the Jedi were at fault” when talking about their own demise. And the answer to that is:

No.

The Jedi were not at fault. Everybody else was.

The Senate was at fault for growing corrupt and self-serving.

Big Corp for their never ending greed.

The Separatists for being so blind and naive as to think Big Corp would tooootally value their principles and absolutely not commit war crimes every chance they get.

The Sith for being the mass-murdering egotistical assholes who started this whole mess.

And the citizens of the galaxy for not taking up arms in the face of blatant injustice.

Sometimes bad people win.

That doesn't always mean the good guys are at fault. Sometimes, the bad guys are just… better at the game. Mostly because they see it as a game, and the good guys don't.

Luckily, 20 years later, most of the above faults were rectified by the Rebellion, which was led by the best of the Senate, and composed of Separatist remnants and brave citizens of the galaxy.

Your friends watching something for the first time and getting to that scene VS you, the knower.

The horrors persist but so do we

rocks

i was at the beach with my family yesterday. we picked up pretty rocks that we liked, by ourselves. my cousin showed me one that he liked, and i got my uncle to wash off one that i liked in the ocean. my rocks are different from my brother’s rocks, which are different from my aunt’s rocks, and on and on through my family. but we all picked up rocks. 

the thing is, that beach isn’t particularly lonely. it wasn’t crowded, but we certainly weren’t the only ones picking stones. 

it got me thinking about how so many people have done the same thing: picked up pretty rocks at that beach. but i saw my pretty rocks, and i didn’t really look at the rocks that my dad did, or that my cousin did. and so many people have picked up their pretty rocks but ignored the ones i found, the ones i have now. 

there’s a metaphor in there somewhere, i know it. 

I really want a science fiction story where aliens come to invade earth and effortlessly wipe out humanity, only to be fought off by the wildlife.

They were expecting military resistance. They weren’t counting on bears.

I’m going to do my best to frame this as respectful because I do want to understand your Anakin-positive side, but this is also a topic that I get emotional about for many reasons.

Often, the anti-Anakin viewpoint is more based on his active choices, but I’ll touch on that later.

You mention that the Jedi should have freed Shmi. They are not gods — they cannot free every slave, so what makes her more ‘worthy’ of being saved than any other? I am not trying to be heartless, but it’s important to remember when we talk about this.

At the risk of sounding antagonistic, I’d also ask you for a source on both the “expected him to be a perfect Jedi”, and “refusing to acknowledge his traumatic past” points.

I would disagree heavily with the idea that anakin is anywhere near compassionate — and now we’re getting into the ‘active choices’ I mentioned earlier. He murdered children and committed genocide. Intentionally. On two separate occasions. This automatically means that he is not a good person — and yes, I would apply this logic to any other character in any other fandom.

There was, functionally, nothing keeping anakin with the Jedi. Even Count Dooku was friendly with the High Council after leaving them, all the way until he started a galactic war. The Jedi are forgiving, and they would have supported his choice to leave them if he could not handle their life.

It’s also important to note that being a Jedi is, essentially, a religion. No one is forced into it — they adopt children **with their parent’s permission** (Qui Gon asks Shmi before he brings up the possibility to anakin), but if those children grow up and choose to leave the Order, there are no negative consequences.

Anakin couldn’t handle being a Jedi, so he should have left. That discipline isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay, but it’s not on the Jedi to change their entire religion for one person.

To the Anti-Anakin/Pro-Jedi Crowd

Pt. 2/3 of It's Okay to Love the Jedi and Anakin at the Same Time

(Pt. 1 –> here, an angry ask about this post –> here, Pt. 3 –> here)

I think you often forget how Anakin basically had to make a life altering choice when he was 9 years old. Anakin was incredibly intelligent and mature for his age, but at the end of the day he could not fully grasp the weight of his choice until he was much older.

I think– because The Phantom Menace is rated PG– it's easy to forget how horrible it is to be a slave on Tatooine. By the time Anakin is 9 years old, he has endured countless beatings at the hands of someone who literally owned him.

This is inherently traumatizing.

Leaving his mother is traumatizing.

Becoming a Jedi while his mother has to remain a slave is traumatizing. And this incredibly compassionate kid has to deal with that somehow.

Anakin was exceptional, and yet the Jedi were only really willing to make one exception for Anakin: allowing him to train as a Jedi even though he wasn't raised at the Temple. EVEN THOUGH THEY DECIDED THEY WANTED HIM TO BECOME A JEDI.

The moment the Jedi Council decided that Anakin should be allowed to train as a Jedi, they should have understood that an exceptional case must come with exceptional measures.

Instead, they expected him to perfectly conform to the Jedi, even when he was not raised as one. They expected him to interpret every lesson and piece of advice the way almost every other Jedi could, seemingly not realizing that-- because of Anakin's childhood-- he was automatically going to see the world a bit differently and interpret things differently. The Jedi pretty much refused to acknowledge his unique (and deeply traumatic past) in the hopes that Anakin would "let it go."

They should have freed his mother. They should have allowed him to see his mother. He was raised by her, it's not like he was going to unlearn attachment– which is partly what they were concerned about, I get it.

However, Anakin was never going to be like every other Jedi. And the Council should have rejoiced in this.

They should have worked harder to understand him, instead of trying to turn him into the perfect Jedi.

Even in the face of all of this, he became one of the greatest Jedi ever known.

Few Jedi were as powerful as Anakin, few Jedi were as wise as Anakin (especially at his age), and few were as truly caring and compassionate.